The chat support portlet named “May I Help You?” is a production ready chat support system for Liferay DXP / 7, which after deployment, is available under collaboration category . The portlet can also be easily used for peer to peer communication. The chat has fastest performance comparable to leading chat platforms. It renders excellent display in mobile and tablets along with desktop and larger screens. It is implemented using industry strength components like [Google closure templates], [Vert.x] and [nodejs] with the help of [Vert.x Integration module].
The portlet is highly configurable. The system configuration is available under System setting >> Collaboration tab. The portlet also has portlet instance configuration for various aspects like portlet user category selection, default images and CSS for some chat div’s. The portlet CSS can also be modified within custom theme as there is no extra custom CSS used in the portlet UI.
The portlet uses only standard UI components from Liferay lexicon and bootstarp3 for UI customization flexibility. The portlet can be scoped system wide (default), portal instance wide, site wide and in page scope. The portlet has three modes (non-portlet) in portlet configuration, to render different UI for each selection. This mode selection along with page level permissions facilitates the access control for the portlet. For example, a page can be permissioned to be visible by only service operators (via Liferay role) and on this page service operator mode can be selected for the portlet. This will enable only service operators to access the page with service operator UI. The portlet on guest pages can have guest mode to render guest specific UI etc. The adding and removing of guest, members and service operator in the user list is implemented in real time without page refresh and without any polling. The implementation is event driven with the help of an industry strength bus system. There are two list, one containing guest (un-registered users) and members (registered non service operators) and the other containing service operators. The guest users are uniquely identified with the help of niche and reliable browser identification technique. Clicking an item in service operator list transfers the current live chat session to the clicked service operator. A guest user is free to send messages which are displayed to all service operators in left hand side panel on top right. However, the chat session can only be started by a service operator. The service operator on starting session gets all the chat history of the guest so that he can know the problem. If the service operator closes the chat session, the guest messages are again stored in history list on server. The history list is closed when the guest navigates away from the portlet / page. The members can also chat by selecting the member mode.
The chat port (7929) is different than the portal port, so please make sure that it is open from client / browser. The port can be configured from System setting as mentioned above.
The module is open and flexible for further enhancements as per specific user requirements. Some implementations are disabled for various reasons, like encryption of data over wire. This can be enabled on request with choice of algorithm, if feasible. The LZW-encoded / decode and Base64 are currently available / implemented in the module.
Please send queries, bugs and feature requests to [email protected]. It would be great if subject lines can start with Query: Bug: and Ftr: for filtering convenience.
Please do visit documentation URL for full details of the module and it's configuration.
----------------------------- Links -----------------------------
[Vert.x Integration module]
https://web.liferay.com/marketplace/-/mp/application/89412772
[Google closure templates]
https://developers.google.com/closure/templates/
[Vert.x]
http://vertx.io/
[nodejs]
https://www.npmjs.com/
[portal-configuration-module-configuration]
The instance configuration requires a bundle that implements configuration provider. The implementation is distributed as a bundle called Liferay Portal Configuration Module Configuration. Please check version of Liferay Portal Configuration Module Configuration from gogo shell as below (terminal screen shot above)
lb | grep Module
download the appropriate module from below link if the module is not found by above command https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/com.liferay/com.liferay.portal.configuration.module.configuration/
DXP with FP27
https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/com.liferay/com.liferay.portal.configuration.module.configuration/ 2.0.10
Liferay CE 7.0 GA4
https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/com.liferay/com.liferay.portal.configuration.module.configuration/ 2.0.8
Liferay CE 7.0 GA3
https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/com.liferay/com.liferay.portal.configuration.module.configuration/ 2.0.3
Please verify and install the correct implementation.
[Configurable modules]
https://dev.liferay.com/develop/tutorials/-/knowledge_base/7-0/making-your-applications-configurable